(Credit: Joseph Maldonado/PCMag)
With the wave of new AI-powered web browsers launching in 2025—from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Perplexity, and more—it's hardly shocking that Opera has joined the race with its own entrant, Neon. As PCMag's resident AI expert, I wanted to see whether Neon truly stands out in this crowded field.
After spending some time testing it, I found that Neon does bring a few distinctive touches, including an AI-powered Cards system that functions much like traditional browser extensions, and its overall performance holds up well against its rivals. That said, its steep $20 monthly price and familiar limitations in agent functionality keep it from breaking new ground. Neon likely won't convert AI skeptics, but if you’re curious about what it offers, here's what you need to know.
What Is Opera Neon, and What Can It Do?
Neon, which is available for macOS and Windows, combines Chromium’s familiar features with innovative AI technology. Chromium is an open-source web browser project that Google primarily develops and maintains, and it’s the foundation of many modern web browsers, including Atlas, Chrome, Comet, Edge, and more. This shared foundation means that you can access standard features, such as Incognito mode, download extensions from the Chrome Web Store, and browse the web as normal.
The Chromium base also means that switching to Neon from Google Chrome and similar browsers is easy. Syncing data such as browsing history, bookmarks, extensions, and more requires only a few clicks and signing in. Extensions delisted from the Chrome Web Store, such as uBlock Origin, won’t work. However, you might not need all your extensions, thanks to Opera’s standard ad-blocking and VPN features.
Neon has a familiar set of AI features. You get a chatbot-like AI assistant you can access at any time, along with agentic functionality that lets you tell the AI to perform tasks for you. You can also use Neon AI for other purposes, such as generating images, videos, or web applications. Neon relies on mainstream models from Google and OpenAI to power its AI features.
Currently, access to Neon requires an invitation, and you need to join a waitlist to receive one. The company's monetization strategy might change in the coming months, but at the time of writing, it costs $20 per month. Some AI web browsers, like Comet, are totally free, while others, such as ChatGPT Atlas, require a paid plan (ChatGPT Plus) to unlock their full capabilities. However, ChatGPT Plus also provides a multitude of AI chatbot features, none of which Neon offers.
Some Features Are Worth Trying Out
Since Neon AI is a version of Opera, it feels similar to the mainline browser. For example, I didn't have to bother finding an ad blocker, since it already includes one. Additionally, Neon supports a variety of integrations by default, including those for Discord, Messenger, Slack, TikTok, X, and more, making it easy to access these services without needing to open a new tab.
Of course, Neon focuses most on its AI functionality. Interestingly, it features both an in-browser AI agent (capable of taking control of your instance) and a virtual agent (which runs a virtual instance). Thus, you have the flexibility to retry tasks that don't work with one of the two. However, such flexibility is useful only when something doesn’t work the way you want the first time.
(Credit: Opera/PCMag)I also like Neon’s Card system. Cards are, essentially, extensions for your AI assistant. Like with the Chrome Web Store for browser extensions, you can browse for all sorts of different Cards in Neon's Card store and install them with a single click. Then, you can use them within Neon’s AI assistant sidebar. Cards seem to be sets of preset instructions. For example, you can download the “wallet-wise” Card that “offers tips to travel affordably and wisely” from the store. Then, you can toggle the Card on in the assistant and prompt it with “Spain, $1000, two weeks” for help on how you can get the most out of your trip on that budget.
Neon's highlight functionality is also worth mentioning. If you highlight a word or phrase on a page, Neon gives you the option to Explore More. If you click that prompt, Neon opens the assistant sidebar and prompts the AI to help you further understand what you highlighted. So, for example, if you’re reading a PCMag article and an unfamiliar term appears, you can get a definition for it directly on the page, just by highlighting it. This mostly just saves you the trouble of opening a new tab and Googling something, but it’s nice to have.
Lastly, I like Neon’s privacy policy. It stores input and output data only temporarily, typically for up to a month, before deletion, and doesn’t use this data to train any AI models. Opera also notes that it doesn’t use your data for advertising or personalization purposes. This approach to privacy isn’t invasive, nor is it overly complicated, which is somewhat unusual for AI services.
Opera also recently announced the Opera Deep Research Agent. This functionality, which you will be able to toggle in Neon’s main assistant sidebar, will do deep research for you like an AI chatbot. I love deep research on chatbots, so having that as a core feature in my browser sounds intriguing. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available to test at the time of writing.
Unremarkable AI Agents and High Costs Are Downsides
The list of things I don’t like about Neon isn’t especially long, but some might be deal-breakers. One major complaint I have is that Neon's AI agents simply don't work well.
Chatting with Neon’s AI assistant works as you might expect if you were to visit ChatGPT’s or Gemini’s sites. However, Neon’s AI agents (both in-browser and virtual) have serious drawbacks, just like those within Comet. When I told Neon to search for a meatball recipe and add the appropriate ingredients to my Instacart, it stalled after just three ingredients. When I tasked Neon with searching for Warframe relics and populating that information in a Google Sheets tab, it failed to properly interact with Sheets.
(Credit: Opera/PCMag)Sometimes, switching to the virtual agent from the in-browser agent yields better results, such as when I asked the virtual agent to create the same relic spreadsheet. Still, it was slow and could only make the spreadsheet for me outside of Sheets. Meanwhile, I can just use Sheet’s Gemini integration to accomplish the same task more effectively and efficiently. Of course, depending on the task at hand, your mileage might vary.
Beyond agent issues, Neon partners with Google and OpenAI to power its large language models (LLMs) behind the scenes, automatically routing you to an appropriate model based on your prompt. I appreciate Neon’s reliance on best-in-class LLMs, but I don’t like that I can’t choose which model to use for a given prompt.
Arguably, the most profound limitation of Neon is that it isn't free. As mentioned, Opera says Neon will cost $20 per month. If you gain access to Neon while it's invite-only, you can use it for three months at no cost. After this period, you'll receive a 50% discount. Discount or no discount, I just can’t wrap my head around spending money on a web browser that’s not significantly better than the competition, especially since you don't get any extras for your money. Furthermore, even if Neon were significantly better than it is now, I’m not convinced that I’d want to buy into another pricey subscription for a class of application that’s been free for decades.
Neon Doesn't Push the Boundary for AI Web Browsers
If you get an invitation, you have nothing to lose by trying Neon. When it's ready for a wider release, consider it only if you’re an ardent Opera user who wants AI in your web browser and has some disposable income. But, for most people, what Neon offers isn't nearly worth $20 per month, especially given the state of its AI services. After all, you can just sign up for Perplexity and get access to a wider variety of models (that you can select yourself) and use its Comet browser for the same amount of money (or less).
Neon is still relatively early in its development, so it might evolve into something more compelling over time, but it's clearly not there yet.